For those who could not attend in person, the speech was recorded for replay at 7 p.m. on Sept. 28 on KSMU 91.1, 88.7 in Mountain Grove, 90.3 in West Plains, 98.9 in Joplin, 103.7 in Neosho, and KSMS 90.5 in Branson.

The speech will be televised on Ozarks Public Television at 9:00 p.m. on Sept. 29. Ozarks Public Television is seen in Springfield on Mediacom channel 13. Viewers with over-the-air antennas receive OPT on channel 21.

I want to use this issue of Clif’s Notes to update you on the budget process for fiscal year 2013, revisions to the travel policy and the plan for a shared leave pool for staff.

Budget process

Today, we are posting information for the fiscal year 2013 budget preparation. By visiting the Financial Outlook website, you can see the overarching goals, the budget assumptions and the committee structure. All committee members have been selected and posted to this website.

All committees will begin meeting in the near future. For example, the Executive Budget Committee will have its first meeting on Sept. 29. Dr. Eric Bosch has agreed to chair the Executive Budget Committee again this year. One of the first agenda items will be a discussion of a mid-year salary increase for faculty and staff. My plan is to have a recommendation to take to the Board of Governors at the Oct. 28 meeting, with implementation on Jan. 1, 2012.

Improved process

We are using an improved version of the process we used last year. We have made three notable changes for this year:

Faculty have selected their own representatives to the college committees, as well as the Academic Affairs Budget Committee and the Executive Budget Committee

While the overarching goals are listed on the website, they are worth repeating here. There are four:

Create a pool of resources to fund an across-the-board salary increase for faculty and staff.

Determine criteria for allocating one-time funding.

Develop a strategy for funding new initiatives.

Begin to develop plans that will incentivize and reward colleges and other units to increase enrollments and revenues, without compromising academic quality, with such plans to be implemented in the fiscal year 2014 budget.

As was the case last year, minutes from the committee meetings and other updates will be posted to the Financial Outlook website throughout the budget process. There is an easy mechanism for you to submit your comments, and I invite you to do so.

Revised travel policy

I am pleased to report that we have revised, streamlined and improved the travel policy. The revised travel policy is effective today (Sept. 21).

Most of the changes make it easier for you to be reimbursed for travel expenses. For example, the “zero balance” hotel receipt requirement has been eliminated; exceptions to meal maximums may be approved; and one employee may turn in meal receipts for a group of employees. So that fewer expenses have to be paid by you personally, the revised policy allows procurement cards (P-cards) to be used to pay more expenses.

Some benefits also have been changed. For example, the daily meal maximum has been increased from $50 to $57, and foreign travelers may upgrade their flight class to economy plus.

One reduced benefit is the elimination of meal reimbursement for single-day trips. Such meals must be reported as taxable income, according to 2011 IRS guidelines, and the office of financial services simply does not have the manpower to track this activity. As a result, these expenses will no longer be reimbursed.

Our goal was both to improve the travel policy and to clarify all key issues. I think we have accomplished those goals, and I want to thank the committee members who reviewed this for their good work. We anticipate scheduling at least one implementation session for those staff members who work most with the travel forms, approval, etc.

Shared leave pool

For several years, the Staff Senate has advocated for a shared leave pool. Late last academic year, a specific proposal was drafted. We have now reviewed that draft and made some minor changes. It is my plan to take this proposal to the Board of Governors for approval sometime this calendar year. Implementation would be for fiscal year 2013 (July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013).

The shared leave pool would apply to eligible staff (i.e., at least 9-month employees) as well as 12-month academic administrators.

The purpose is to provide a safety net against salary interruption for employees who have a qualifying event causing them to be unable to perform their assigned job duties. Some examples include major surgical procedures, cancer treatments, stroke or other serious health conditions. Donations of leave hours by employees provide income to an affected employee who would otherwise be on unpaid leave.

Participation in the program is voluntary, but you must donate at least 24 hours (3 days) to be eligible to benefit from the shared leave pool. A committee composed of representatives from Staff Senate, human resources and the administration will review the requests.

As you can imagine, the plan has other details. Once it is finalized and ready to send to the Board of Governors, I will alert you so you can review it online.

We are very pleased to be taking action on this long-awaited program. I know many of our colleagues will benefit from it in the years to come. Again, once the policy has been posted and the Board of Governors has taken action, we anticipate having an implementation session to answer your questions about the program.

I hope these updates are timely and helpful. Thanks for all you do for Missouri State University.

–Clif

This fall, a student with learning disabilities came with her parents to enroll at Missouri State and to make the transition to college. This story was told to me via an email from the parents. Below are excerpts from that email; I have substituted “our student” for the name.

When the family was on campus for the Student Orientation, Advisement and Registration (SOAR) Program, they met with Dr. Steve Capps and Amanda Polking with the Learning Diagnostic Clinic and Project Success.

“We cannot express how comfortable they made us feel with our choice in Missouri State,” the parents wrote. “They made our student feel comfortable by sharing their own personal experiences and an appropriate amount of humor that made our daughter feel right at home. We could physically see our student’s anxiety release while talking with them.”

Just before coming to Missouri State, the student also was diagnosed with a digestive illness that involves multiple food allergies and sensitivities. This created a lot of stress for both the student and her parents. Learning a new diet regimen and seeking out appropriate foods added to the transition to college that was already overwhelming. The family met with Katheryne Staeger-Wilson, director of the Disability Resource Center, to seek help.

“She (Katheryne) was again amazing,” wrote the parents. “Not only did she make us feel that accommodations can be made, but getting accommodations will not be an inconvenience to our student or Missouri State.”

The family wanted to follow up with the contact names Katheryne had given them, but there was no time to make appointments in advance as they normally would have. So, they walked into the “closed” dining hall at Blair-Shannon and motioned for help from the first Chartwells employee they saw, Shift Manager Lanita Petzold. Lanita helped get the family connected with the appropriate Chartwells staff to discuss the special dietary needs.

“Lanita’s compassion, knowledge of food sensitivities and empathy blew us away!” the family wrote. “She single-handedly relieved a whole lot of our worry. We literally handed her a list of about 10 food allergies that includes, dairy, wheat, eggs and sugar. Lanita’s response was, not only can we help you with this, but this is not a problem or inconvenience for your student or our staff. Lanita walked us over to a food cooler that will soon contain items like soy milk and gluten free bread and assured us these items will always be available. She let us know that the food service team is there and ready to make accommodations, and it will not be a hassle to negotiate through. She ended by saying, “Don’t worry. We will make it happen.”

The email from the family ended with this:

“The purpose of this story is to let you know that even though Missouri State is a very large university, it has the ability to accommodate to the individual needs. This was shown to us not only at the department head level, but at every level through the university. It is not an easy task to take a vision for the university and communicate this vision into action at every level throughout the campus. For this reason, we felt it was very important to let you to know what an amazing job the Missouri State University family has done.”

Overarching goals

As the budget recommendations for fiscal year 2013, the four overarching goals for all committees, and ultimately the Executive Budget Committee, are:

Create a pool of resources to fund an across-the-board salary increase for faculty and staff.

Determine criteria for allocating one-time funding.

Develop a strategy for funding new initiatives.

Begin to develop plans that will incentivize and reward colleges and other units to increase enrollments and revenues, without compromising academic quality, with such plans to be implemented in the fiscal year 2014 budget.

Budget assumptions

Early in the budget development process, the Executive Budget Committee, perhaps taking recommendations from a smaller subcommittee composed of all constituent groups, will develop the budget assumptions for fiscal year 2013. These assumptions will provide the parameters that guide the work of the budget committees. The assumptions will include, but not be limited to, the following:

State appropriations

Enrollment

Tuition increases

Carry-forward – both one-time and on-going

University reserves

Targets for salary increases, new initiatives and fixed cost increases (such as utilities)

The Executive Budget Committee will develop best estimates for all of these to share with the committees. In all cases, the estimates will err on the conservative side.